S. V. Ranga Rao Biography

Personal Life & Career
Samarla Venkata Ranga Rao (b. 3 July 1918 - d. 18 July 1974) was an iconic South Indian actor, director and producer. He has an important place in the cinema history of South India (both in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu). He was an internationally acknowledged actor and is popularly known as "Vishwanata Chakravarthi." .

He was considered to be a versatile actor and the first actor of his variety with the famous mannerism "orey dongrey" from the movie "Jagath Jettilu" he is the household name in Andhra Pradesh. He passed away on July 18, 1974 suffering a severe cardiac arrest. But, he continues to live in the annals of Tollywood and Kollywood film history.

Samarla Venkata Ranga Rao (S.V. Ranga Rao) was born on July 3, 1918 at Nuzvid in Krishna district , when the World War I was drawing to a close . His mother, Lakshmi Narasayamma, a staunch devotee of Lord Venkateshwara, christened the boy after Him -- Venkata Ranga Rao. His father , Koteswara Rao, was an excise inspector .

The possessive father sent S.V.R. to the erstwhile Madras presidency where he finished his school at Hindu College. At an early age of 12, the boy showed vast interest in stage action. Studying B. Sc, but the mind of youthful S.V.R. was constantly preoccupied with the thoughts of stage-plays and movie acting. Immediately after graduation, S.V.R. could get a job in the Fire Service in the cadre of an officer . Two objectives were still clear in his mind , which were to do Master of Science and to take active part in dramas and films .

S.V.R. got an invitation from one of his relatives , B.V. Ramanandam, to play the hero in his film "Varoodhini". He immediately abandoned the occupation, and went forth for Salem to join the celluloid world. In fact, its a great start for the young man. The movie "Varoodhini" was released , and in a few days peoples set out to forget that they had ever seen such a film. No producer dared to offer a role to him. Soon, S.V.R. was disillusioned with the filmdom and left the Madras presidency and reached Jemshedpur, where he took up the occupation as a budget assistant with the Tata Company. However, his love for dramas commenced to bloom multifold. At this juncture, he was wed to Leelavathi Vadeti on Dec 27, 1947. In the days that pursued, S.V.R. was given an chance to play the villain in the film , "Palletoori Pilla," produced by B.A. Subba Rao. Unfortunately , when Savara was about to take a train to Chennai, his father expired. After performing the final rites , S.V.R. reached Chennai, but somebody had knocked away the villain role.

Luck tapped at S.V.R.'s door through Vijaya Pictures, which offered him the most memorable "Nepala Mantrikudu" role in "Pathala Bhairavi." Immediately, he came into the limelight, followed by "Pellichesi Choodu" (1952). Its Tamil version was also played by him. Within a short time, S.V.R. received appreciation from both Telugu and Tamil audiences. He acted almost every character in history. He showed a kind of recklessness and arrogance in his dialogue delivery which was especially copied and imitated by MGR, so much so that sometimes a person trying to imitate MGR ends up doing a SVR-mimicry. The other great actors Sivaji ganesan and NTR showed tremendous histronics which could have both hair-raising and eye-drenching effects on the audience. But when the scene doesn't click well they end up over-acting. They are often mistaken to have been imitating SVR, but they are more of the Toshiro mifune class. The iconic status did not reach him so easily. He struggled a lot and from that struggle born a great actor of all times. Maya Bazaar and Missamma are among his famous movies. His dialogue delivery cannot be matched with that of any film personality as he can deliver dialogues even written in Sanskrit with so ease and with complete emotions that no one can ever come close to him in this aspect.